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Edison Festival of Light
Edison Festival of Light
FORT MYERS
Held in February, this is one of the area's biggest and most celebrated
annual events, and commemorates the birthday of the area's most famous
winter resident, Thomas Edison. It features three weeks of events,
including a spectacular parade of lights on February 20th through downtown
Fort Myers. Main events include opening ceremonies, a gala ball, fashion
show and the Edison Festival 5K Race.
In 1885, Thomas Alva Edison built his winter home in
Fort Myers, Florida on the Caloosahatchee River. Throughout the 50 years
Edison wintered in Fort Myers, he dedicated time in support of local
charities and projects. He died in 1931, having successfully received over
1,000 patents for his inventions.
Following the 1989 Edison pageant of Light, the new organization, the
Edison Festival of Light, Inc. Officially assumed responsibility for all
of the Pageant's public events.
2254 Edwards Dr, Fort Myers 33091
· 239-334-2999
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The idea of a celebration to commemorate Edison's life of achievement evolved
into the Edison Pageant of Light in 1938, with a Coronation Ball,
a parade, a band concert and the memorial service, which began following
Edison's death. The successful three-day event needed to accommodate a
growing series of events, which later increased to a week-long festival,
then ten days, and finally to two full weeks.
In 1988, demand for more public events was great, but the pageant membership
available to provide volunteer leadership for more activities was limited.
The choices were: To limit the growth of the public events of the Pageant
so they could be handled by Pageant volunteers: or to create a new public
corporation to assume the responsibility for event which were open to the
public.
In a unanimous vote, the board of directors of the pageant elected to turn over
all the public events of the Edison pageant of Light to the new,
non-profit corporation. This paved the road to the possibilities of civic
celebration in which the entire community could participate, not just as
spectators, but as volunteer workers, committee chairman and board
members. The Pageant also agreed to support the new organization
financially and with programming expertise of its membership until the new
celebration was financially and structurally ready to strike out on its
own.